GTALE

I think this is right. Similar to how meshing goes when you move up a wanted star. You have officers mixed with SWAT, and once the officers sort of fade away, it becomes all SWAT. I think that is how policing will go once you pass county lines of go into other jurisdictions.

LAPD 85

* The only reason I don't think the white SUVs with the stripe are rangers is because they are carrying heavy arsenal. Park Rangers, state or federal, don't carry out swat type missions against someone. But who knows, Rockstar can do what they want.

Those tactical officers appear to be scripted to spawn on/with the police SUV. We see them in the Vinewood sign picture, we see them in the motorbike picture, and we also see them in the sheriff chase picture. The police SUV is going to be one car with different liveries (sheriff, 'park ranger', etc.) and at a certain wanted level those tactical officers are going to spawn on/with the police SUV with whatever agency (livery) that is associated with the car. In the Vinewood sign picture it seems that the case was the those SWAT guys spawned with that one white/green stripe SUV.

QUOTE

So this brings in my next question I would like opinions from you, especially some of you experts in the field. Do you think agencies will work together and mix together? So lets say we go on a pursuit out of Los Santos, then the Los Santos Sheriff guys join pursuit, then we head out to Blaine County, will the Blaine County sheriff guys join too? My guess is yes. They will probably fade away if their car is decommissioned or if another agency gets the full grasp of a pursuit. Will we hear agency chatter like in previous games, but improved? Like maybe "The Blaine County Sheriff's Officer will take if over from here guys, thanks." Or maybe even "The Blaine County Sheriff's Office is requesting assistance from San Andreas Highway Patrol." You can't tell me this wouldn't be awesome to both see and hear. Agencies working together if needed and near border lines.

I would put money down that it's going to be the same in IV and SA that the cars/uniforms are just going to change. It would be awesome to see and hear but I don't think Rockstar is going to spend the time, resources, and money to implement that.

QUOTE

The more I read this thread and look at the photos the more excited I get about what Rockstar seems to be doing. I hope they don't drop the ball in the end like they have in previous games when it came to law enforcement. As you've pointed out, Rockstar made separate uniforms, badges, and characters for officers in GTA IV between Liberty City and Alderney State, but they at the last minute didn't change their cars. Same with San Andreas. The folders inside the game had textures for different agencies, but they just dropped at the last minute to state police.

In IV they had state troopers in Alderney thrown in with the LCPD but where in IV (or SA if you are referring to that) did they have car textures for different agencies?

USAPatriot

IN San Andreas, there were files for various law enforcement agencies, and buildings also had various agency names like sheriff's office. Two examples can be seen from Angel Pine and Fort Carson. So the buildings said sheriff's office, but they were state police offices instead.

The shot with Trevor climbing the Vinewood sign, and the SUVs in back could very well be park rangers. If this is the case, it would blow out theory that park rangers won't do anything. The real Hollywood sign is actually in a park zone with park rangers. It is plausible.

USAPatriot

Russian gaming website further confirmed a law enforcement SUV. The poor Russian to English translation said, "police Jeep." We currently know the law enforcement SUVs we've seen to be Declasse Ranchers. But it would be interesting if this Russian article did actually see a Jeep (As we think of them) and not just another SUV. The author says they saw it while in the wilderness, so it could be a park ranger unit. They just call it police, since they don't distinguish it. Have a read of it in Russian here or read a translation of it in English here.

GTALE

I was reading another thread trying to take credit for what you got here. Yeah, it is just a translation difference. Jeep is pretty much SUV when the translation goes from English to Russian or visa versa.

USAPatriot

I'm pretty sure it is an SUV. It is unlikely to see a Jeep (Wrangler) style law enforcement vehicle. Even though in a trailer, we did see that Jeep Wrangler styled vehicle fall out of the back of an airplane. If anything though, the Ranger SUV will be the Declasse SUV. The U.S. Forest Service (not to be confused with the U.S. National Parks Service) does have Jeep Cherokee's though as well as Tahoes and other vehicles.

USAPatriot

I don't think so. The back seems different, but looking over it again, it is not. Same modern 2013 cruisers.

As well we got some other shots.

County Sheriff car out by the Alamo Sea. Blaine County. Wonder if there will be other counties other then Los Santos County and Blaine County? I would like to think the coastal areas with wooded trees are in a different county then the Alamo Sea. Not a game breaker, but just a wish.

Lol! Didn't notice that post before. Every state in the union has a state level police agency. They go by names such as State Patrol, State Troopers, State Police, or in California's case (And a few other states like Wyoming and Montana), the Highway Patrol.

GTALE

There will be old older Vapid Cruisers, or by this threads terminology Pre-2013 Vapid's. We haven't seen them removing them from the game yet. They can still be seen on screens even as recent as an update ago. The latest E3 screens showed a Sheriff Pre-2013 Vapid as well as the modern 2013 Vapid's. They are all there.

Thanks for the feedback your thread is very informative.It should be full.

No problem and thank you. If you check back a page or so, when Rockstar released the three trailers for each character, you can still see this unit in some of the footage (The Franklin trailer). So no worries about it not being in the game yet. Also based on the videos, we saw some of the other cars in the game too, which is how we have that little confirmed list above. A screenshot soon thereafter also showed us the first images of San Andreas Highway Patrol on motorcycles wearing blue helmets.

So as a quick update to you and anyone else reading... here are the agencies so far we have marked in the game.

GTALE

Anyone know the areas where the LAPD and LASD uses the Dirtbikes they use for off-road patrol? This would be fun in-game

There is no confirmed San Diego, and as you probably don't know, but should know following this thread, we follow definites, ask maybes, but don't confirm until it's official or have definite proof. To answer your question, The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office both have dirt bike units if needed. Often for rural search and rescue or property checks in remote areas. It would really be a unit the Sheriff's Office uses more then the municipal police force.

San Diego has a small dirt bike unit as well, but I don't think the San Diego Sheriff's Office does (though they probably do).

USAPatriot

I mean really, law enforcement fans here should be pumped! I'm pumped. Look at all the different agencies and vehicles we've seen so far. Rockstar has done pretty much everything all the police groups had wanted since GTA:SA, improved it in GTA IV, and now we got this with several agencies and vehicle types.

They've also been listening or at least watching our threads seeing how in depth we've gone over the past several months on counties and jurisdictions. It's been a great time explaining and talking to you all about. Hopefully there will still be some more we can talk about before release. After release, we will see just how in depth it all went.

LAPD 85

Anyone know the areas where the LAPD and LASD uses the Dirtbikes they use for off-road patrol? This would be fun in-game

There is no confirmed San Diego, and as you probably don't know, but should know following this thread, we follow definites, ask maybes, but don't confirm until it's official or have definite proof. To answer your question, The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office both have dirt bike units if needed. Often for rural search and rescue or property checks in remote areas. It would really be a unit the Sheriff's Office uses more then the municipal police force.

San Diego has a small dirt bike unit as well, but I don't think the San Diego Sheriff's Office does (though they probably do).

Where did he say anything about San Diego?

Anyways the LAPD Off-Road Enforcement Unit is used in many different areas of LA. Here is a good read about them.

USAPatriot

The next topic we will talk about, when I got time to make it is the San Andreas Highway Patrol. This will be fun, and we will discuss that one photo with the sports car, and the motorcycles behind it more in depth!

As well, early renditions of the Blaine County Sheriff car seemed to have a stripe along the side of the vehicle. But later pictures might prove this has changed... or that the vehicles we are seeing ARE NOT BLAINE COUNTY SHERIFF CARS, but instead SAHP... but their cars are white? So I will also be examining the uniforms. So I will break down the previous break down and go more indepth and compare it with more modern shots too with law enforcement vehicles and who they could be. Clearly this old diagram is out of date, and we've proven a lot of it incorrect with the new knowledge we have. Blue helmets... SAHP! But what about the vehicles behind them?

Just for fun, if the cars we are seeing lately are Blaine County Sheriff cars, some pictures seem to show they have very little markings now, and might even have green lettering similar to this image below.

GTALE

I can't wait. We haven't really gotten many good shots of Blaine County Sheriff cars recently, so hopefully we can see better shots of them. I would be thrilled to see a San Andreas Highway Patrol car unit too. It's hard to tell with all these front angles we keep seeing. They are always in pursuit, so we rarely see the sides in screens.

USAPatriot

Where is Blaine County Sheriff's Office in GTA V and Whats Up With The Los Santos County Sheriff?

First lets start off with a major correction and backtrack on a previous thing we thought we approves and completed. WE HAVE NOT SEEN A BLAINE COUNTY SHERIFF CAR YET. I was wrong when diagraming an image before, and have the evidence to back it up. So lets discuss where the heck the Blaine County Sheriff cars are, and whats up with the two color variants of the Los Santos County Sheriff's Office. Code 3.

You're thinking, "but we confirmed a Blaine County Sheriff car in the shot with Trevor climbing the Vinewood sign. I thought so too, but the answer is now no. Looking closer at the text on the side, it is still hard to tell what it says, but the new dead give away is this...

That's right! The emblems on the side of the vehicles match. The white pre-2013 Vapid in the one shot has the same badge design as the Declasse Rancher SUV in the other, and to make it more confusing, both cars are different colors. Since we confirmed the SUV is a Los Santos County Sheriff car, that would make the white unit a Los Santos County Sheriff car as well. It would also make more since since the Vinewood sign would be within county lines and not Blaine County lines. But hold on, there is still a lot to discuss. In the "Trevor climbing Vinewood" sign picture, what are those two white SUV's in the background with the stripes? Are they an older version of the LSSO SUV? Has Rockstar since changed the SUV to be black and white and do the same to the sedan soon? Or they the park ranger vehicles we wanted to know and see so much about? At this point, they very well could be park rangers (only concerning factor is their heavy guns).

So why would Rockstar make a knockoff parody of the Los Santos Sheriff's Office be with white cars and black SUVs. Shouldn't they all be black and white like the real sheriff car?

I did research, and found out the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office does in fact have white cars, but they are reserved for volunteers, senior citizen patrols, and college campuses. They also have orange lightbars. So my only reasoning is that Rockstar made their Los Santos Sheriff cars white so the player could differentiate that they are no longer being pursued by Los Santos Police. It is slight, but would be noticeable in the heat of a pursuit. Still odd the SUVs are a different color then the cars. So this is still a foggy area in our research, as are the SUVs in the "Trevor climbing Vinewood Sign" image. They will be brought up again below.

So where are the Blaine County Sheriff cars? Have we even seen one yet? Answer. I don't know, but we might have in a recent photo released during E3 by Rockstar, check image 7 below for direct answer. Check it below and following the numbering of the image with each paragraph.

1. Possibly an older version of Los Santos County Sheriff SUVs before they changed to black and white (see number 4). If this is the case, the cars might be re-skinned to black and white too soon. There is a possibility these are park ranger units as well, because the Vinewood sign is within park grounds.

2. Not a Blaine County Sheriff car like first thought, as the badge on the side matches the badge of Los Santos County Sheriff SUVS seen in image 4.

3. This is just showing users that the older Pre-2013 Vapid Cruiser is still in the game, seen here as LSPD.

5. Motorcycle units are the GTA V version of California Highway Patrol due to the blue helmets. Due to a lack thereof for a better name, we will call the the San Andreas Highway Patrol. Note there is a white Cruiser and white SUV too, unknown if they are SAHP as well or a local sheriff's office assisting. We don't have enough information on the SAHP to continue this conversation really, but it is exciting to see they will be in the game (at least in motorcycles).

6. This is the same type of vehicles as image 2. It is a white Los Santos County Sheriff unit, which at this point I think will be the main patrol car for the agency. The black and white SUVs which are like a special ground unit, come later.

7. This, this right here. This could be our first look at a true Blaine County Sheriff car. It's small, it's white, it's blurry. Based on the surroundings in the full sized image, it seems like it is Blaine County (Assuming Blaine county is around the Alamo Sea). Since Rockstar never said what defines Blaine County and where Los Santos County ends, we just don't know yet which agency this is. Don't forget we can't leave out other counties being in the game is a good possibility.

We at this point just have to hope Rockstar doesn't scrap different sheriff agencies at the last second because they think it would be easier to make all jurisdictions be patrolled by a state police force like they did in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas back in the days of Playstation 2. I do not think they will, and I am confident they won't, so lets not think they will.

Lastly on the agenda for this update is the Los Santos 2013 Next Gen Vapid Cruiser. This car.

As you can see, I made one of the markings we've seen in the trailers, and then made one using traditional LSPD markings, which we have only seen on pre-2013 Vapid Cruisers and a Bravado Buffalo. Why is Rockstar not using the older markings on these newer units as well? I really don't know. In real life, the Los Angeles Police Department has not been changing their vehicle markings, so there really is no explanation. But it is a game, Rockstar's game, and they can do what they please.

That is it for this update, and thanks for reading. Hope we answered many questions and cleared things up for people. If you want to discuss or have burning questions, please comment below! Happy Fathers Day.

stevizzle123

Well i know you said that you dont think they will have one agency patrol the rest of the area out of the city, but i dont think you would need more than one and we havent actually seen any vehicles with blaine county on them thus i think it makes sense to only have 2 agencies maybe 3 like the fib as you get more stars and then possibly the military. I dont think rockstar would create the los santos sheriffs just to patrol the small outskirts of los santos and then have blaine county so.

I also think that the first pic of the suv we saw was probably just a rough draft and the newer pics are what it is now because we havent seen any new pics of it.

The real mystery to me is the police bikes, yes they have blue helmets like the chp but there are sheriffs units behind them so why would they only make highway patrol bikes??? So i think they maybe los santos sheriffs as well.

As for the latest pic of the sheriffs car if look back at previous pics there is one with it and the black sheriffs suv which are los santos sheriffs office so i dont believe they have added any blaine county units. I may be wrong but it just doesnt make sense to me..

GTALE

Awesome! You certainly fixed things up and got lots of support for theories, and they make a ton of sense. My biggest issue still is the two different vehicle schemes for the Los Santos County Sheriff's Office. We've already seen there cars in the game, so we know they are there. But I wonder why the cars are white and SUVs are black and white?

I was shocked you just said we hadn't seen a Blaine County Sheriff car, but as I read what you wrote and saw your evidence, it is compelling and makes perfect sense. I think you are right. We have not seen a Blaine County Sheriff car yet. Now I am actually worried Rockstar might just throw away Blaine County (even though they still use the term in all the related magazine previews). We've see all LSSO vehicles and no police chases through the high desert and Alamao Sea. We've seen police chases along rural forested roads by the coast line, but the view is always too far away to read the car descriptions. The one shot with the Cuban plane shows all black and white vehicles and no motorcycles, which makes me think they might have been a different jurisdiction or county sheriff. I don't know.

Overall, great update. People really need to comment more on this thread. You do all this work, then people say nothing.

gtablt

Dude this topic is awesome! I've caught up all the way through after being interested all through the first 9 pages! Yeah, it's that good! Props on the awesome topic! Nice work on all the modeling of cars and special artwork. Not sure why no one comments on it.

Blaine County Sheriff not being seen surprises me, but it seems like you are right. We've seen Los Santos Police and the Los Santos Sheriff, and thats it. We haven't even seen higher levels of law enforcement like possibly the FIB or whatever. So I had a theory... Los Santos police will pursue in the city limits, but what if it had tiers like city police chasing you, then county, then SAHP? I know this doesn't make much sense... but it's possible.

I really like this topic and how in detail everything goes. I hope we will see Blaine County Sheriff cars soon, and more from the San Andreas HP. Park rangers would be nice to see as well as lifeguards by the beach. I'm so jazzed right now about the law enforcement aspect of the game, and this thread really made me more excited. I'm following and will contribute.

jackjenkins

I speculate that you cannot get many people to comment because the name makes it sound so damn boring, how many people who play gta wanna know what department the cop thats arresting them is from and under what jurisdiction?

I've personally spent more time in a police car on any gta than any other vehicles yet I'm not particularly bothered by what's written on the side.

Not sure if you can change the name of a thread, but you might wanna spice it up a bit.

OTI reckon it could well be the same as in GTA:SA, one sheriffs department for all the countryside, all we've seen is two sheriff vehicles. The white sedan and the black and white 4x4.

I'm willing to bet the white version of the 4x4 seen a long, long time ago next to the vinewood sign was only a beta of the black and white 4x4 seen more recently.

GTALE

OTI reckon it could well be the same as in GTA:SA, one sheriffs department for all the countryside, all we've seen is two sheriff vehicles. The white sedan and the black and white 4x4.

Side noteWhen were the Vinewood chase screenshots released?

The Vinewood shots were first released earlier this year I think. I'm not 100% certain.

Rockstar has said though there is a difference between BLAINE COUNTY and Los Santos. They have actually stressed this. One thing that took us all by surprise was actually seeing Los Santos County Sheriff cars. We just expected Los Santos to be it's own city-county setup without a sheriff's office like previous games have done. So that is a positive change.

I am sure there are Blaine County cars if they made Los Santos Sheriff cars for the small rural areas around Los Santos city limits. If they took the time to do that, why not have Blaine County cars for that vast bigger area around the city and outside of Los Santos County? Also the evidence of SAHP is an exciting twist, as well as the park service rangers.

USAPatriot

stevizzle123 - And that is where you are wrong at this point. We do know there is more then the Los Santos PD and Los Santos County Sheriff's Office. Rockstar has made it clear Blaine County exists, and we know Blaine County wouldn't have Los Santos County Sheriff cars in it. While it is possible they may scrap Blaine County Sheriff cars and just add San Andreas Highway Patrol, that still wouldn't make sense because for some reason they made Los Santos County Sheriff cars. Lets just assume Los Santos County includes some coastal towns north of Los Santos. This is still a "small" area for the sheriff's office, but the fact Rockstar made cars for them in this small area means they are adding this extra bit of realism in the game. So why not make a sheriff's office for the massive expanse of Blaine County? This is why they are making Blaine County Sheriff cars, which we have not been confirmed to seeing yet.

gtablt - Welcome to the GTA V forum and thanks for posting your first post in this thread! Your theory is possible, but unlikely. Here's why. One game that did that was Need For Speed Most Wanted on the original PS2 system. It took place in the fictional mountainous city of Rockport and it's surrounding suburbs. The game never gave the surrounding towns separate police departments, but all the police cars that were labeled "CIVIC" were black and white. So it is possible they were different city agencies with the same color scheme. But as your wanted level increased, other agencies moved in. After the Civics were the Unmarked guys, also labeled as Civic, but they had variants for county and state police. The game also had county level law enforcement, then finally the state police coming after you. The reason why GTA V will not do this is because it is an open world more detailed then anything Black Box did with EA. Rockport's landscape and map was really pretty, but they didn't put the same level of focus on the law enforcement Rockstar is doing because Black Box didn't need to sell to the player the realism of the location. Rockstar does. Separate towns, different counties, locations, etc. To make this the most real San Andrea location we have ever seen, Rockstar will want to do their best to add all these minor (but big details to us) to their game. It's all those little things that add up and stand out. Think of the little things in GTA IV you were impressed with such as signs, or realistic departments, people functions, etc. While the average GTA player won't care or notice different police agencies, smarter players like us, who look for details, will be impressed with the amount of immersion material Rockstar has added into the game. Thanks for your questions!

jackjenkins - I have already tried several times to change the threads name, but I can't. :-/ Too bad. The focus of the thread is the same, but more exciting then the name leads off. I guess people don't prefer educated sounding topics when they are playing a game about crime and explosions. Ha ha!

I am also willing to bet where ever this northern town is located, it is the COUNTY SEAT of a county. You will notice a sign says BONDS on the right hand side, which is associated with BAIL BONDS. A bail bond place will be near a courthouse. The county seat would have a courthouse. Sha-bam baby! Wonder what county this is?